


You're Music To My Ears

by letsgetalittleseethrough



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America Steve, M/M, Tech Support Bucky, can you feel Steve's frustration, oh the failings of modern technology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-27
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21584239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgetalittleseethrough/pseuds/letsgetalittleseethrough
Summary: Have you tried uninstalling the app?I have, yes, Steve typed, wondering if his fury could be read in those words.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 23
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [realityfallsapart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/realityfallsapart/gifts).



_ Have you tried uninstalling the app? _

_ I have, yes,  _ Steve typed, wondering if his fury could be read in those words. This was what he got for stepping away from records and into modern technology. Had it really been worth it? Taylor Swift did have vinyl, after all.

_ How did you uninstall? _

_ I’m sorry?  _

Look, he may have been not-too-hot on how all this app-stuff worked, but he was pretty sure you just, like-

_ I clicked “uninstall” on my phone, and went into the applications page on my laptop and “moved it to the trash”. _

Support was typing again:  _ So SHIELD is not working for you across more than one device?  _

“We’ve been over this!” Steve wanted to scream. “20 different emails and you keep putting me onto live chats and I’m just going round in circles and  _ oh my God _ -” 

_ Could you try logging in and logging out? And then report back? _

This time, maybe Steve actually did scream.

\--- 

_ Hi there! Have you installed the latest update? OK... Try restarting your phone.  _

_ Oh, you have a laptop too? SHIELD has been affected across all your devices? _

\---

_ Hi there! We have no reported bugs at this time… how old is your laptop? ...I’m going to pass you on to another member of our team. Sorry for the inconvenience.  _

_ Hi there! You see the shield-shaped button on the bottom left? ...Oh, you don’t have that button? Are you sure? Bottom-left? Interesting. I’ll get in touch with another member of our team who may know a bit more about this.  _

\---

Steve’s carrying in the “Fuck It, I Give Up” record player (after he sold his last one, and apparently his soul, to SHIELD about four months ago now) into his apartment when the email comes through:

_ You have been promoted to the executive help team! More details to follow shortly!  _

_ Promoted, huh,  _ Steve thought. _ Has a nice ring to it, I guess.  _

\---

_ One and a half months later _

Steve’s lovingly caressing his “Lover” vinyl ( _never could do that with my SHIELD version of it_ , he thinks, both happy and bittersweet) when there’s a knock at his door that sounds like someone’s knocking with a piece of metal. 

And he opens the door and the guy has a metal arm, which answers that question. 

“SHIELD?” the guy says. 

Steve blinks. “Um,” he says helpfully. 

“I’m Bucky, part of the executive help team. Your SHIELD app isn’t working…” he glances down at something on his phone “- across more than one device, and you’ve tried all the usual methods, and you can’t find the SHIELD button?”

“Yes!” Steve says, suddenly so grateful that someone’s actually listening to him that he wants to kiss this total stranger. “Yes, yes, come in!”

“It’s so nice, y’know, sometimes people see me and all they see is ‘Captain America’ and it’s so awkward, y’know? So it’s nice that, y’know, you didn’t do that,” Steve’s babbling as he shows Bucky in. 

“Captain America? That’s patriotic,” Bucky says, and Steve realises that he really doesn’t know who Steve is. 

And he meant it when he said it was nice. 

“You’re a traitor,” Bucky says suddenly, and Steve doesn’t say “would you like a coffee?” like he was going to and instead breaks out into a cold sweat, even though he’s not sure why he’s a traitor - Bucky says it with such conviction. 

“All these records? What is this, the 80s?” 

“I haven’t been able to use my SHIELD account in like two months,” Steve protests, but Bucky just shakes his head. 

Steve makes him that coffee, goes and gets his laptop, so Bucky can fix both that and his phone, and Bucky’s halfway through his coffee and Steve babbling on about how the words “have you tried uninstalling?” will haunt him in his dreams when Bucky says, “By the way - I can only work with a lot of noise going on around me.” He points to his ear lobes, as if that explains anything. “So here-”

Steve looks down at the concert ticket in his hand. “Um?”

“They’re a local band, you can’t hear the words above the electric guitars, you come with me, I fix your SHIELD, we’re all good, and you get a free concert out of it. Deal?”

And Steve’s not sure why he says “Sure!”, but he does. 


	2. Chapter 2

_ Everyone has a different definition of "too loud", _ Steve thinks. Everyone has their own limits as to what they can take.

But when the music is loud enough that the bartender is communicating mostly via sign language, and the drink Steve did manage to get off her starts  _ jumping out of its glass _ because the bass is so intense - that's the fucking definition of too loud.

(Steve would also add, if he was feeling humbuggy and 115 years old, that this band can also be classed as "too loud" because Steve can unfortunately hear them, and he'd much rather not be able to. 

_ Next time I go to a gig, _ he thinks - though god knows when that'll be, or if he'll even have any hearing left after this one - _ I'm taking ear plugs.) _

But Bucky appears to be having a great time - he's sitting up at the bar typing away on Steve's laptop without a care in the world. 

Steve resists the urge to check his watch every 0.4 seconds. They've made it through two fucking awful support acts and now the even-worse, came-here-via-Hell main band are on and his SHIELD account still isn't fixed? 

_ Maybe I should donate my laptop to the keyboard player, _ he thinks sullenly.  _ I'm sure with the way he plays he'd break it even more, and so hard it'd just fix itself. _

"So," Steve yells at Bucky, just as one song comes to an end and blissful silence falls, "you come here often?"

Everyone in the room turns to look at him - well, except Bucky, who's either too deafened by the music or too engrossed in fixing Steve's SHIELD or too downright disgusted by what sounds like-

"You should pick a better pickup line," the bartender says sympathetically. "You want a beer on the house?"

"We're here together!" Steve almost shouts, but now the band has unfortunately started up again and one one can bear witness to the fact that he's not a creep and he takes the beer from the bartender and promptly spills it all over his shirt. 

\---

"Nope," Bucky says, as they leave the venue and their breath turns visible in the air, "nope nope nada zilch."

"Unfixable?" Steve asks, and he must say it so forlornly, because Bucky makes soothing noises and slings his arm around him. 

"Your laptop's fine - coincidentally I love your farm on Stardew Valley, by the way - so it's gotta be a problem with the SHIELD software itself." He frowns deeply. "'Cept I couldn't find one." 

He stops in the middle of crossing the road and a car honks at him. He's beautiful, Steve thinks suddenly, watching him be illuminated by the car's headlights and looking like he was sent down to earth just to come into Steve's life-

"- about 5PM? I don't want to get in the way of you having dinner or anything?"

"What?" Steve manages. 

"Me, you, next Tuesday, 5PM." Bucky looks at him with a warmth that's probably just come from all the beer. "I'll bring a bunch of scary cables and my own laptop and we'll… we'll get this sorted, Steve. You have my word."

Steve's feeling and sounding strangely emotional when he doesn't say "thank you" like he totally planned to but instead says, "it's a date." 

"Dress up nice," Bucky says, wrapping him in a hug, and then Steve's left in the road with his laptop and  _ such _ a big crush.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you couldn't already tell, this is just utterly ridiculous. I hope you like that...

“And now I hook these wires up to my head,” Bucky says, and Steve looks at the heap of cables that have been plugged into his laptop and shudders. “Just kidding! Uh, seriously, Steve-” he takes his fourth sandwich of the hour from Steve’s for-guests-only plate. “-Seriously, I gotta admit, I’m struggling a little here.” He chews on his sandwich with a frown. “Your account doesn’t even have a shield button, I mean, how-”

“I’m a lost cause?” Steve asks, half-serious, half-joking-around. 

Bucky nods sadly. “These are really good sandwiches, by the way.”

“Uh, thanks. My mum’s recipe.”

“Mind if I call for backup?”

Steve has visions of 10 black SUVs drawing up at his house, his door being broken down, music blaring. 

“Sure,” he says.

\---

Natasha hisses at his phone, which Steve had reluctantly handed over. “What did you _do?_ ”

“What did _I_ do?” Steve repeats. “Why would I have done anything?!”  
  


" _I_ certainly didn’t do anything,” she replies, and then whacks his phone on the coffee table. “Huh. That usually helps.”

“Boy, I can _smell_ the italics,” Bucky pipes up, having moved onto a plate of cookies he just watched Steve stress-bake. “No luck, Nat?”

Natasha growls. 

“Let’s take a walk,” Bucky advises, putting the hand not holding a cookie on Steve’s shoulder. “You got any nice sight-seeing spots round here?”

“There’s a dog park,” Steve suggests. “But I don’t have a dog…”

“C’mon.” Bucky stands up, grabs another cookie. “Man, Steve, your mom really passed the ‘good cook’ genes down, damn. Looking at other people’s dogs sounds like my idea of a good time. Ring us when you’re done, Nat?”

“How are you even paid for this job?” Steve asks. “How come you can just go and chill out?”

“I’ll ring you in six years, Barnes,” Natasha sighs, grabbing a cable that Steve hasn’t seen before out of her jeans’ pocket. “Have fun.”

“Oh, we will,” Bucky promises.

\---

Dog park. Cat cafe. Coffee. Milkshakes. Burgers and fries. Hotel room-

“Hotel room?” Steve coughs. 

“I like this place,” Bucky says calmly. "Sure beats my neighbourhood." Then he puts on a very good pair of puppy-eyes. “And I’d be lonely without you stayin’ with me. And I wouldn’t risk going back to your apartment whilst Nat’s stilll there. She enjoyed your pasta, though.”

Bucky makes a convincing argument. 

“Only one bed,” Steve coughs six minutes later. 

“I can sleep on the floor,” Bucky offers, the puppy-eyes coming back to full effect. 

“No, no - c’mon. Do you want to be the big spoon or the little spoon?”

\---

“Nat’s got your phone playing one of your playlists,” Bucky announces at 3AM.

“That’s great,” Steve says sleepily, and then sits bolt upright. “Wait - she got it working?”

“She’s now trying to turn it off,” Bucky says, reading from his phone: “‘Dear God - he has no taste in music… Taylor Swift??’” 

“She’s great,” Steve protests, and then falls back into a deep sleep, his arms around Bucky. 

"Nat says don't worry about the burning smell," Bucky says, but Steve's gone into a world of dreams.

  
  



	4. Chapter 4

* * *

"Bucky," Steve mumbles into the dark, clutching at a t-shirt and a well-toned shoulder (yes, well-toned shoulders are a revelation to him too.) "Buck - I think-" He wakes up a little more, the incessant whining noise and orange glow proving more worrying than sleep. "-I think someone's trying to break in!"

Bucky just presses his face more into Steve's chest. "Worry about it if we're not dead," he mumbles back. 

Steve begins the process of "anxiously sweating like hell". 

"I have enemies," he tells Bucky, sitting upright and seeing stars as his head collides with the headboard. 

Bucky grips tighter. "Nat doesn't hate you that much, Steve."

Steve watches in terrified silence as the door is cut down by what he thinks might be a chainsaw. The phone rings. Steve picks it up. "Room 24 would like you to keep it down," the receptionist whispers. Steve whispers back an apology, and, just as he replaces the phone on its stand, the door falls in, in a glow of orange. 

"Some sort of robotic chainsaw?" Steve mumbles.

Bucky stirs. "Ah. That'll be Tony."

\---

"I hear you've been having trouble with your SHIELD account, and - can I just say - as I happen to be Tony Stark, also known as the creator and developer of SHIELD, this too troubles me. I'm here to make things right, Mr. Rogers."

Steve takes the hand that's offered to him, gets a very confident handshake from it. He's still in bed. 

"Mr. Barnes," Tony says, looking at the arms still wrapped around Steve, "you can stop pretending to be asleep now, yeah?"

"It's 3AM," Bucky complains, impressively, considering he hasn't checked the time.

"I own this hotel," Tony responds, and Steve half expects him to add "and time itself".

With a series of loud radiator-like noises Bucky unpeels himself from Steve's side and sits up. His hair is kinda messy and Steve kinda loves it. 

Tony's produced what looks like 50 pages of paperwork. 

"Whatever you want me to sign, if it'll get my SHIELD fixed, I'll agree to it," Steve says, generous in these early morning hours.

"Oh, good. Barnes, you got an extra set of keys?"

Bucky makes a motion that says "gimme the damn paperwork".

"We're moving in together," he announces to Steve 15 minutes later, "...because last night…" he squints at the tiny print "...last night Natasha burned your apartment down trying to fix your account."

"Natasha was just doing her best," Tony argues, as Steve enters a period of mourning for all his Taylor Swift vinyl. 

"I'm sure my bed has space for you," Bucky says, as he washes Steve's back in the shower. (They couldn't agree who would go in first, so naturally they both did.) 

"I guess I _was_ kinda bored of my old place," Steve says, and then, "wait- did my laptop survive?"

\---

"I climbed out of your burning apartment with it in-between my teeth, Rogers," Natasha says, handing Steve's laptop to him, her bangs looking slightly singed. 

"Wow," Bucky pipes up, "you probably owe her coffee." 

Natasha glares. "I want a full four-course meal. And the first course has to be spicy pistachios."

\---

"You have a nice place," Steve muses, eating half a tub of Bucky's ice cream on Bucky's couch. 

Bucky returns from his bedroom with an armful of clothes. "OK, these should fit - but I recommend you don't wear them in this place."

"Why?" Steve asks innocently. 

"Why? Why the hell would I _want_ you to wear clothes?" 

Steve accesses the depth of ice cream left in the tub. "We can have sex once I've finished this?"

Bucky collapses next to him, puts Steve's spoon thoughtfully in his own mouth. "I thought you'd never ask." 

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you're thinking "what even is this fic", I am too


	5. Chapter 5

_SHIELD HEADQUARTERS_

“They’re having a Very Important Conference,” Bucky whispered to Steve, who peered through the see-through, glass wall at a bunch of seemingly-identical looking tech people. “So we have to be very quiet-”

“All those in favour of changing the colour of the SHIELD button to a shade of-”  
  


“Top secret!” Bucky screamed, and, at a tap of his phone, the most aggressive-sounding Dodie song came blasting out into the air. “If you knew what colour it was,” Bucky shouted above the violins, “I’d have to kill you, Steve.”

Steve was still staring through the glass wall. “Looks like… huh, brown is an interesting choice?”

Bucky blinked. “Has anyone ever told you you might be colourblind?”

“I’m a super-soldier!” Steve laughed. “I have optimal everything!”

Bucky blinked. “A super what? I didn’t know you were an army guy?”

“Ehh,” Steve said, and Bucky took that as code for “It’s a long and boring story, trust me”. 

“Ah, Mr. Rogers, you’ve arrived,” Tony said, arriving himself from a tiger-pulled chariot.

“Animal rights,” Steve said automatically. 

“Fluffy is my friend, Steve,” Tony said back, and they all watched as Fluffy sat down and drifted off to sleep. 

“It’s a nice place you’ve got here,” Steve offered, thinking of the pits of fire they’d had to jump through just to get to the reception.

Bucky wrinkled his nose. “You change the wallpaper _again?_ ”

“It needed a certain pizzazz. Now, Mr. Rogers, I take it you have both your phone and your laptop?”

Steve nodded, patting the phone-sized back pocket of his jeans, and then the laptop-sized front pocket of his jumper. “You betcha.”

“Follow me, then, please.”

\---

“Did we really have to swim to your office?” 

Tony stood, imposingly, under a giant hand dryer. “Yes. Any further questions?”

Bucky lay down on the floor and took a nap. Steve looked around, pointed. “Is that a vending machine?”

“Yes. No more questions. Now, let’s get to the bottom of this.”

\---

Steve stared at the metal box that encased his phone. He tried pressing the ear defenders harder against his ears. “My phone sounds like it’s screaming.”

“It’s just the frequency of the magnets. Relax.”

Steve, after lipreading her words, tried to find a relaxed expression on Ms. Pott’s face, but he only saw a worrying amount of determination. “Right. And this fixes my SHIELD account by…”

Ms. Potts patted his shoulder with a spacesuit-glove-encased hand. “Don’t worry yourself with the specifics. Why don’t you choose something from the vending machine?”

Steve left the room of Making Steve Worry and swam back to Stark’s office. “Hey, Buck. Look what I got??”  
  


Bucky blinked awake. “If it’s the candy bar in the blue wrapper, don’t eat it.”

“‘S OK. I picked the purple one.”  
  


Bucky sat up like someone was paying him to. “Steve- there is no purple one-”  
  


“It tastes good, though,” Steve wined, as Bucky shoved a fist in his mouth and pulled out the chocolate goop. 

“Don’t get that on my carpet,” Tony intoned, in a bored voice. 

“I’m so disgusted,” Bucky said, staring at his own Steve’s-saliva-covered hand. “And yet also in love.”

“What would have happened if I’d ingested it?” Steve asked, looking mournfully at the other candy bars still in the vending machine. 

“Trust me, sweetheart,” Bucky said grimly, looking around for enough soap to bathe in, “you really don’t want to know.”

\---

“Well,” Tony said, looking at his computer with a blank stare, “the news is that SHIELD isn’t working on your devices-”  
  


“How is that good news?”

Tony glared. “One, I wasn’t finished. Two, I didn’t say ‘ _good news_ ’, I simply said _news_. And the news is-”

“SHIELD is no longer working on _any_ device, for _anyone_ ,” Bucky said, reading through a bunch of paperwork Ms. Potts had given him. “Well… that’s equality, baby.”

“The secret lies with you, Steve,” Bucky said, after a prolonged silence. He glanced at Tony with a grave expression. “And that means-”  
  


“What you think it means, yes, Mr. Barnes.”  
  


“Um,” Steve piped up, his voice squeaking, “ _uhh, um_?”

“I’ll make sure you’re OK,” Bucky promised, and suddenly Steve wasn’t feeling all that OK anyway.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> inspired by my friend Allyssa - Allyssa, when I heard that you’d actually been “promoted” to an “executive help team”, I knew it was fic material. I hope your popular streaming service account gets fixed soon, and you get a Bucky on your doorstep too


End file.
